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At 22-3, Gilbert Melendez sits atop the UFC’s lightweight division. With victories over Josh Thomson, Diego Sanchez, Shinya Aoki and Jorge Masvidal, “El Nino” is ready for a new crop of challengers as the Santa Ana native has agreed to a multi-fight, multi-year deal structure with Bellator that can pit Melendez against some of MMA’s best, including Eddie Alvarez, Michael Chandler, Will Brooks, Dave Jansen and a host of top lightweights from around the world.

“The moment Gil was legally able to explore the free agent market, Gil’s management team reached out to me and we began figuring out how to bring Gil to Bellator,” said Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney. “It’s no secret that I’ve been a big “El Nino” fan for many years. Gil was one of the first fighters I tried to sign when I launched Bellator back in 2008, and he’s grown and developed into one of the best and most exciting lightweights on earth. Gil has a vision for what he wants to accomplish both inside and outside the cage and we can help make his vision a reality. We are in the business of developing and showcasing the greatest fighters on earth. That’s what we intend to do here with Gil and it’s what we’ll continue to do in the future.”

Right now the UFC has a virtual monopoly and we are starting to see the consequences. Fighters who are among the the very best in their weight classes are being released or not signed.

I'm no Gil fan but you cant deny that he is among in the best in the world at 155. 200K per fight is not unreasonable for someone ranked number 2 in their division. If this continues the sport will suffer. People I know who were once passionate about the sport have already begun to lose interest in the UFC.

I really hope Bellator, WSF or another group starts challenging the UFC.

I find it odd that people who don't fight for a living feel entitled to decide how much a fighter is worth.

rh

All manner of men came to work for the News: everything from wild young Turks who wanted to rip the world in half and start all over again -- to tired, beer-bellied old hacks who wanted nothing more than to live out their days in peace before a bunch of lunatics ripped the world in half.

Good for Gil for getting a nice payday, even if I think they're paying too much for his services(much like the Askren/OneFC deal), or should I say, an inflated rate, but if Viacom's shelling it out, that's good for the fighters.

However, given his level of talent versus the Bellator LW field, I'm not too sure this works well for him, their division is just so shallow and he's going to be either crushing cans, prospects out of their league or praying for a close fight with Chandler, so they can work a program with multiple bouts, since guys like Rickels, Jansen and Brooks just don't meet Gil's level . Eddie's got one foot out the door and could very well be leaving BFC as champion and Chandler, while a great fighter, has only had Eddie as a real measuring stick against high-level competition.

Cesar Gracie has been tweeting some interesting things about his dissatisfaction with ZUFFA and to some degree, I wonder if this isn't an instance of Dana having a hard-on for that camp and dealings with the Diaz Bros, Shields etc.

I just think back to the Turner/WCW model of paying a shitload of money to compete with the established promotion(WWF) and to some level, overpaid and didn't see a return on their investments, not because they weren't drawing money, but because they were spending more than they were making....I expect to see a few more names getting contracts in the coming months, especially guys who are over 33-ish and cut or not resigned and guys who made livings in Europe and Japan like Hansen, Khalidov(if they want to make a serious offer to a serious free agent), and then you have names like Crocop, Kharatonov(although I think he has a SF contract if I'm not mistaken) who have names similar to how they're using Arlovski in WSOF....

I find it odd that people who don't fight for a living feel entitled to decide how much a fighter is worth.

rh

Isn't it kind of simple though? If you factor in paid attendance, ad revenue and viewership/or buys etc? I look back to Affliction and to a lesser extent some of those contracts SF was throwing out and they simply weren't commensurate with what they were pulling in, and there should be some level of attention to not going too far off the deepend. I get the "spend money to make money" idiom, but that's a tightrope to walk.